Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
Britain now has children aged five and under on the books of the Forced Marriage Unit. Home Office figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests show at least 27 children five or younger were referred between 2021 and 2025.
They sit inside a wider total of more than 100 children aged 12 or under. A referral is not a completed marriage. It is information about an actual, potential or suspected forced marriage. Campaigners say the real number is far higher because so many cases never reach statutory services.
The legal age of marriage in England and Wales was raised to 18 in 2023. Forcing anyone to marry is already a criminal offence. The practice continues anyway. And it’s quite clearly an imported problem.
Patrick Christys was blunt. “This is barbaric, medieval and, crucially, we’ve imported this problem.” He noted that Pakistanis account for 41 percent of Forced Marriage Unit cases, Bangladeshis 9 percent and Afghans 7 percent.
A large share of those cases involve children. The idea that people arrive, kiss British soil and instantly absorb British norms does not survive contact with the data.
Shockingly, some cases even have no overseas element at all. In 2022 there were nine referrals of children aged 12 or under where the suspected or actual forced marriage would have taken place entirely on British soil. Separate 2025 figures show cases with no overseas link rising to 58, or 14 percent of the total.
